TEA

Texas public education officials on Friday released the final list of 68 charters and school districts that will pilot a new method for assessing teachers this fall. Three districts and one charter in the Houston area agreed to try the new method, called the Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System, or T-TESS. They are Friendswood […]
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Student test scores in the Houston Independent School District improved slightly in most subjects this year, with the weakest performance in English and writing, according to preliminary data released today. Performance on the state exams was mixed in the nine high-priority schools participating in Superintendent Terry Grier’s reform program called Apollo, with some scores skyrocketing […]
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Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott ruled Friday that the school accountability system no longer would include a controversial measure that made it easier for campuses to get good ratings even when students failed state exams. Numerous state lawmakers and some district superintendents had criticized the formula, called the Texas Projection Measure, which gave schools credit […]
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Investigators with the Texas Education Agency confirmed allegations of staff-led cheating on the TAKS test at Key Middle School last year, according to a TEA memo [pdf]. The agency’s letter, sent to the Houston Independent School District late Thursday, said that state officials found “significant evidence” that Key students were helped on the June 2009 […]
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In cased you missed these stories: *I wrote today about the Texas Education Agency reducing the number of questions students had to get right to pass the TAKS this year. TEA officials say it’s because the questions were harder. But some cast doubt. Read testing contractor Pearson’s memo on the process. See TEA’s cut scores […]
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High school juniors made huge gains on the exit-level state test, according to results released today by the Texas Education Agency. Eighty-two percent of the juniors passed all four portions of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, compared to 75 percent in 2009. In Houston ISD, 79 percent of juniors passed all parts, up […]
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As we learned earlier today, Gov. Rick Perry is refusing to let Texas apply for the second round of the federal Race to the Top grant. For those disappointed, the good news is that the Texas Education Agency is now releasing the application that its staff had spent some 800 hours preparing before Perry said […]
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Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office has ruled that the Texas Education Agency can keep its Race to the Top grant application confidential. As you’ll remember, Gov. Rick Perry, with TEA chief Robert Scott at his side, prohibited the submission of the application because he thought its emphasis on common curriculum standards amounted to a […]
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A highly unusual press release from the Texas Education Agency accuses the Fox News network of distorting the truth in the contentious textbook debate among members of the State Board of Education. You can familiarize yourself with Fox’s coverage of what it dubbs the “Texas Textbook Wars” on their Web site. Here’s the press release: […]
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Chronicle columnist Rick Casey weighed in today on the Texas Education Agency’s move to keep secret the state’s Race to the Top application. Agency staff spent 800 or so hours working on the application for the federal grant contest before Gov. Rick Perry announced the state would not be submitting it to the U.S. Department […]
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